Then late Bronislaw Geremek

Piotr Gontarczyk, a historian who works for the state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has refuted claims made yesterday by a right wing daily that Bronislaw Geremek, one of the leading lights of Solidarity, was a secret informer of the Communist security services.

A web site that initially made the allegations has apologised.

Gontarczyk states that Geremek, a former foreign minister of Poland and member of the European Parliament, was listed in state files from the sixties as a potential informer, but not as a full-fledged collaborator.

The insinuation was originally published on the website of the conservative journal Fronda. The ultra-conservative Nasz Dziennik daily proceeded to print an outright denunciation of the former Foreign Minister.

However, IPN has claimed that the material obtained by Fronda is misleading.

Tomasz Terlikowski, the author of the original article on Fronda, has now apologised profusely for the error.

He added that he would not expunge the article from the system as if to pretend that the mistake had never occurred. A gush of distasteful comments emerged on news portals in the wake of the allegations.

Bronislaw Geremek was a member of the communist party, but resigned following the invasion of Prague by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. He went on to become one of the most respected members of the Solidarity movement, serving as Foreign Minister following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Geremek also refused to sign a vetting statement before he died, as all public officials must in Poland, that he never collaborated with the communist secret services. (nh/pg)


Source: PAP